Legends: Fall of an Empire

Lies and How to Tell Them

Honest truth, what do you do when a commanding officer finds you doing something that will label you as defective, after he labeled you the best of the group? "Well, Korpus? Out with it!" It's almost as time is frozen itself, because I can't do anything about what is going on. "I-I was tampering with my clothes, General." I say, deflated and defeated. My heart is beating 90 to nothing, and I have never feared so deeply for my future as I have at this exact moment. Time is frozen.
          In my thoughts, I knew my fear outweighed the logic. I am technically the Generals commanding officer as First Captain and he is a member on my team.
         Lacienta takes a deep breath, and ponders what I said. "Kid, you're something different you know it?" With just those words, my worries melted away. "Dear Sally is a safety precaution that we all must follow, the 'Dear Susan' protocol has a lot of unknowns. That's the only reason it's turned off, and all safety protocols are on, for everyone's consumer safety. I hope you didn't delete the files, did you? Because if you did, I would have to turn you into the Society, and I wouldn't want to lose my best pupil over something so trival." He says, with a false honest tone. "So, sew up your collar, pack your shit, and be ready by 0800 hours. You have a lot of strategy to think of, right 'Spionagemesiter?'"
       My heart drops, my mind once again stops, and the General steps quietly away. Did he just call me a German Spymaster?
        It doesn't matter, I have to finish packing. I take one look at my laptop and take one last look at the file left. What is Sally's BlackList file? Why do I feel so inclined to sit here and unlock it before I put my clothes back on?
S.O.C.C. Tech Department definitely needs to update security, because having your password as SOCCRULEZ22 is so childish. Which is oddly the first one I tried. As I scrolled through the file I saw instructions posted at the top, and 2 PDF files connected to it. Before starting Dear Susan, please read.
Step 1 - Remove AI chip from collar of shirt.
Step 2 - Cleanly and precisely cut a 2 inch incision into spinal cord, directly under brain stem.
Step 3 - Insert Chip Directly into brain stem.
Step 4 - Turn On Dear Susan protocol, Delete Dear Sally. Set Pre-Requisite settings.
Step 5 - To Restart all Systems properly, please say 'Dear Sally, my Friend Susan is moving in'
Cut a two inch what now into my where? Insert the AI chip into my neck, directly into my spinal cord? This is something only a mad man would do.
I grab the razor knife. My blood rushing. What am I thinking? As I walk to the mirror my blood rushes to my face and then to my throat. If I cut myself to deep, I won't have to worry about defecting, I'll be worried about permanent paralysis. Is all of this worth a simple advancement in AI. I think about my mother face from my dream, gone, without a single feature. A wave of nausea rushes over me, and I have to throw up.
As I press the razor knife against my neck, my grandpa's voice from my dream speaks to me. This is where you come in. The blood starts gushing from neck, the pain almost intolerable. I quickly insert the AI chip into my neck. "GAHHH!" I yell out in a hushed cry. This is a pain unlike anything other, like a piece of shrapnel in the knee the war vets always talked about. A foreign object like this directly into my neck is one of the only things in the world that I've cried over. I reset the Pre-Requisites as I felt fit. Strategic thinking, fast response time, honest thinking, and integration into all security systems and protocols S.O.C.C. has set. Then I hit the reset. "SALLY, MY FRIEND SUSAN IS GOING TO BE MOVING IN!" I scream, once again in a hushed tone.
Instantly the pain dissipates, I feel my neck, and the gash in my neck is gone, no blood on my body. What the hell? No, Kai, you should ask who the hell! says a voice in my head. Different from Susan, almost like my own, yet none: like my thoughts all jumbled up together to make words. It's almost like whatever said that was using my head as a spirit box. But I am not a spirit child of the Brave. I am S.M.A.R.T.I., SOCCs Manifested Artifically Reality Trained Intelligence. You however can call me whatever you please. Oh buddy this is gonna take some getting used to.
I finish packing up, and delete every file my computer has. No one needs to back track anything to me. Tomorrow is going to be rough, but maybe my new friend Lens will be a great fourth addition to my team.